Communicating spatial information via a multimedia-auditory interface

An Empirical Analysis of Auditory Interfaces in Human-computer Interaction

“…For the degrees of satisfaction/frustration, the verbal messages were not significantly higher than the earcons (F=.540, df=94, p < . 17), and the earcons were not significantly higher than the auditory icons (F=.554, df=94, p < .11), either. But there was a significant difference between the verbal messages and the auditory interface (F=.004, df=94, p < .01).…”

“…For example, Rigas, Hopwood, and Memery [17] showed "structured auditory stimuli (environmental and musical)," or auditory icons and earcons, were particularly effective in communicating "building layouts" (the number of floors, location of rooms, hallways, etc.). And Mynatt [18] attempted to show how well people can identify auditory icons.…”

“Roger that!” — The Value of Adding Social Feedback in Audio-Mediated Communications

“…Soundtrack [16] was one of the first auditory interfaces to use earcons and synthetic speech. More recently, Rigas et al [12] demonstrated the use of earcons to communicate information about the layout of a building. Four different timbres (piano, organ, horn, and clarinet) were used to communicate the sections of the building.…”

“…In addition, audio can be used for conveying temporal information like whether an activity is occurring right now, and when actions start and stop. It can also be used to indicate spatial and structural information, like where the actions are happening, the type of activity and the qualities of the action (e.g., [12][13][14]).…”

Speech Displaces the Graphical Crowd

“…Many studies recommend using earcons [31,32,37] and auditory icons [17][18][19]42] as auditory solutions to enhance usability of graphical metaphors. However, in order for these interaction metaphors to be properly perceived and correctly mapped to the meanings they are designed to convey, the user is required to maintain a high level of concentration and try to develop a correct perceptual context [35,36]. Therefore, to overcome this problem and hence, increase usability, synthesised speech should be combined with non-speech interaction metaphors [33,34,36,41].…”